This invention relates to athlete's landing pits and more particularly to a device for protecting athletes from injuries incurred as a result of falling on or running into standards and vertical posts used to support horizontal bars over which the athletes are attempting to jump or pole-vault.
A variety of aboveground portable or semi-portable landing pits used by athletes in conjunction with high jumping or pole-vaulting exist in the prior art. The most widely used devices of this type are constructed in accordance with my prior art U.S. Pat. No. 3,513,491, issued Mar. 13, 1968. That patent describes the construction details for a pit specifically useful for cushioning the fall of a pole-vaulter after his jump. These landing pits are used typically in conjunction with a pair of vertical posts supporting a horizontal bar over which the athlete jumps. Since the vertical posts, particularly when used for pole-vaulting, must be adjustable in a direction toward and away from the front of the landing pit structure so that the horizontal clearance pole may be positioned at different distances behind the plant box, the vertical supporting posts and the standards in which they are supported are typically placed alongside the pit structure. When an athlete has a false jump or for any reason falls to the side of the pit structure, he can seriously injure himself by falling on the vertical supports or the standards used to hold and adjust these vertical supports. There is thus the difficulty of providing sufficient access to the support structure to permit adjustment while protecting the athlete from injury by falling on the structure. In the past it has been common to throw scrap foam in the area around the vertical support structure in an attempt to protect the athletes while still providing access by removing the foam when necessary. This, of course, is a relatively messy operation and, since the foam can be spread out on a field adjacent the landing pit, it may over time provide inadequate protection for the athlete.